Demand Media revenue and profit beat estimates

(Reuters) - Demand Media reported on Tuesday better-than-expected first quarter revenue and profit on growth at its media websites like eHow, Livestrong and Cracked.

Demand Media makes its money in two ways. In its media business, freelance writers, photographers and videographers provide articles and videos designed to appear at the top of Internet search that in turn generate advertising. The other is a registrar business that maintains top level generic web domain names like ".actor" and ".social."

In February, Demand Media announced it was separating those businesses and spinning out the registrar division.

"We are making steady progress, clearly there is a lot of work ahead of us," Demand Media Chief Financial Officer Mel Tang said in an interview on Tuesday in reference to the spin-off scheduled to be completed by next February.

Demand is branching out into other areas to diversify its business model including paid content. For example it acquired for less than $10 million the subscription-based Creativebug, a website dedicated to help people interested in arts and crafts.